Union Budget 2021: Here are the Highlights for Health Care Sector

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for the year 2021 today, in which she announced a fresh centre-sponsored scheme for the healthcare sector. FM announced the allocation of Rs 64,180 crore in the healthcare sector to improve the healthcare infrastructure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 2.23 lakh crore is the total budget for the healthcare sector. This is an increase of 137% from last year, says FM Sitharaman. The investment in the healthcare sector includes big incentives in healthcare infrastructure, thrust on technology, research and development and digital health. Rs 35,000 crore will be invested for Covid-19 vaccines.

Focussing on the Holistic Approach
Taking a holistic approach to health, this year’s budget will focus on strengthening three areas

• Preventive
• Curative
• Well-being

Introduction of “PM Atmnirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana”
PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana to be launched to develop primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare systems, strengthen existing health systems and support future health interventions with an outlay of about 64,180 crores over 6 years. This will be in addition to the National Health mission and will support 17,000 rural and 11,000 urban health care centres. More intervention under the scheme:

• Establishing 7000 rural and 11000 urban wellness centres
• Setting up of health labs
• Establishing critical care hospital blocks in 602 districts.
• Strengthening of national disease control
• Expansion of integrated health portal
• Establishing 17 new public health units
• To connect all public health labs
• Strengthening of existing public health units

More missions to be launched in Healthcare sector

• Mission Poshan 2.0 to be launched to improve nutritional outcomes across 112 aspirational districts.
• Jal Jivan Urban Mission: Urban Jal Jeevan Mission to be launched and implemented over five years with an outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crore.
• Urban Swacch Bharat Mission to be implemented over five years with an outlay of Rs 2.87 lakh crore.
• Clean Air Programme: Proposal to allocate Rs. 2,217 crore for 32 urban centres to tackle the burgeoning air pollution problem.
• Voluntary Vehicle Scrapping Policy to phase out old vehicles and reduce vehicular pollution: Vehicles will undergo fitness tests after 20 years in private vehicles, 15 years in case of commercial vehicles.
• Pneumococcal vaccine rollout: The pneumococcal vaccine, which is limited to only 5 states at present, will be rolled out across the country. This will avert more than 50,000 child deaths annually.

More considerations for this year’s budget should be:

• Establishment of centrally funded hospital cum medical college in each of the 739 districts of India. This has the potential to radically change the healthcare landscape of India and ensure quality cost-effective healthcare to the citizens.
• Country-wide unified EMR (electronic medical records) system with disease registries and healthcare worker databases for optimised resource allocation. This needs a financial ‘Carrot & stick’ policy for nationwide implementation.
• Establishing and funding a National Healthcare Audit Authority (NHAA) which audits the functioning and quality of care of all healthcare institutions in the country using objective
• KPI’s with minimum quality standards set for the care given at every step, based on the healthcare facilities (primary, secondary or tertiary).
• 5-year plan in PPP funding model for developing high cost imported medical equipment like MRI machine, CT scanner, Ultrasound machines, Ventilators, Dialysis machines, etc., with a clear roadmap that within 10 years all medical equipment should be ‘made in India’ and every important health tech should be indigenised.
• Expand the PMJAY to include all taxpayers. It is the minimum the government should do, considering that the world’s largest health scheme is funded by taxpayers’ money but excludes them.